In France they've had several republics, while they've only had one in America and in Rome.
Why do you think U.S. Republic lasted longer than each French Republic? What do you think the factors are?
In a way, the French Revolution kind of saved the French from having a single counter revolution, but that isn't necessarily a good thing. It's kind of like they had several ups and downs, while America had one short and small up (most of the time before the 14th Amendment) and one big and long down (post-14th Amendment).
I think for all practicle purposes it may be best to think of us in our 3rd or 4th republic. There was for whatever reason, no real need or thought to overurn the consitution - which has run it's course so very long ago.
"As in a kaleidoscope, the constellation of forces operating in the system as a whole is ever changing." - Ludwig Lachmann
"When A Man Dies A World Goes Out of Existence" - GLS Shackle
@Vive
When would you personally split up the American republics? How I see it would go something along the lines of: The First Republic
The Second Republic (Begins with the Civil War)
The Third Republic (WW2 & the New Deal)
When the First Republic started? Since Constitution?
The Republic ended with the "civil war."
I'm not sure why we're calling it a Republic after the Civil War. It started out as a Republic, but it went to Fascism pretty quick.
How are Fascism and Republic incompatible?
@Michelangelo
That's actually quite a good distinction, even though the transition to the third republic isn't nearly as dramatic as the first to the second.
Andris Birkmanis: How are Fascism and Republic incompatible?
They're not innately incompatible. Republic means the rule of law. Fascism means shared state-private ownership of the means of production. You can easily institute fascism into law, so there's no conflict there.
But what I think he was getting at is that before the civil war there was no sense of federal ownership of the states. There was the belief at least that a state could walk away and secede. Afterwards that question has been answered in the negative. We are captives of our government. We may have laws but now we serve their master rather than being served by them.
No2statism: In France they've had several republics, while they've only had one in America and in Rome. Why do you think U.S. Republic lasted longer than each French Republic? What do you think the factors are?
For one thing, we don't have any serious military competitors near our shores, and two great oceans to isolate us from everyone else. So we aren't threatened physically in any serious manner. Even 9-11 was a mere scar and could never be a mortal wound. Unlike other countries we and our capital city are not the sole locus of power and economics, unlike say Japan and Tokyo and the like. We've also been less focused on conquest, we never had a Napolean to get us into trouble.
Beyond that, the US started out far more libertarian than France, and has taken this long to wind down into tyranny as a result of the internal contradictions and deficiencies of the Constitution.
Thirdly, they made changing the constitution really hard :P
@ Mich
That's probably right - unless you want to throw in articles of confederation as #1. There may be a few more divisions (including perhaps even a more a more modern one) but my guess is those would be less "major" changes and disputible.
Yeah. Initially, the state was thought of as being a country on it's own, with the federal government existing purely to operate the agreement between the states.
I think there have been at least four major shifts in American history:
1. Civil War
2. Wilson Administration (Federal Reserve, Income Tax, WWI etc,)
3. FDR Administrations (New Deal, WWII etc.)
4. Closing of the Gold Window (current period)
What do you think was the worst shift? They all seem equally bad to me.
Civil War - Numerous people dead, heavy censorship of free speech, tighter Federal Government
Wilson Administration (and really the whole Progressivist era) - Federal reserve created which began the destruction of sound money, theft on a grand scale from the Income Tax, and numerous soldiers from the U.S. dead (not even mentioning the mass deaths across Europe)
FDR Administrations - New Deal sealed the deal with the Fascist economy, World War II and it's numerous deaths, mass imprisonment of Japanese-Americans (the American Holocaust), extreme usage of the executive order, and...*sigh* Arthurdale...
And yeah, the present day that all of these led up to.
The points of change were the worst: 1860's, 1910's, 1930's, 1970's. All of those periods were, however, followed by relative prosperity, although much of the wealth of the 20's, 80's, 90's and 00's was of course illusory.
In my mind, I agree with the other resondents that there were several US Republics. Only I would add the colonial times to the Constitution as one republic and remove post 1971. So my list of USA Republics is:
1. 1607 to 1775-Start of the Revolution where what was the governing body created an army.
2. 1775 to Civil War. The biggest event in the history of the USA where at least 600,000 people died needlessly.
3. Civil War to New Deal/WW2.
Clearly the biggest division was the un-Civil War that destroyed slavery and created central bureaucracy that was willing and able to use violent force to maintain the country but there was still a tradition of individual freedom that took 65 more years to destroy.
The only other event that could make this list would be the leaving of Brentton Woods but is minor compared to the policies enacted during the New Deal and the interventionist policies enacted as a result of the "victory" in WW2.
Something that got me thinking of a breaking point was Jim Traficant's 1993 presentation on the Federal Reserve. It may just be a bunk theory but he did say something like "the 1933 Act was when the govt was handed over to the banksters".
The 14th Amendment was definitely a counter-revolution (kind of reminds me of how fascists love the number 14 with 14 words of truth an all), but I believe the "..No State shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process..." was what the Federalist Party originally wanted the Bill of Rights to be (if there was to be one at all, that is)... I'd guess that the Radical Republicans probably found some of the 14th Amendment's blueprint in the Library of Congress. I'm sure Dr. DILorenzo has it all researched.
Finally, I agree with vive le insurrection and the poster who said the Constitution was made too contradictory/strong and too hard to change. It really is impossible to truly change. For example, depending on future Supreme Courts, the 16th Amendment may not have been the master key to taxing income.